The power dissipation of integrated circuit chips, and the modules containing the chips, continues to increase in order to achieve increases in processor performance. This trend poses a cooling challenge at both the module and system level. Increased airflow rates are needed to effectively cool high power modules and to limit the temperature of the air that is exhausted into a computer center.
In many large server applications, processors along with their associated electronics (e.g., memory, disk drives, power supplies, etc.) are packaged in removable subsystem configurations stacked within a rack or frame. In other cases, the electronics may be in fixed locations within the rack or frame. Typically, the components are cooled by air moving in parallel airflow paths, usually front-to-back, impelled by one or more air moving devices (e.g., fans or blowers). In some cases it may be possible to handle increased power dissipation within a single subsystem by providing greater airflow, through the use of a more powerful air moving device or by increasing the rotational speed (i.e., RPMs) of an existing air moving device. However, this approach is becoming problematic at the rack level in the context of a computer installation (i.e., a data center).
The sensible heat load carried by the air exiting the rack is stressing the ability of the room air-conditioning to effectively handle the load. This is especially true for large installations with “server farms” or large banks of electronics racks close together. One solution to this problem is to combine the air-cooling approach with a liquid-based cooling system employing one or more cold plates coupled to high heat-generating electronic devices (e.g., processor modules) disposed within the electronics subsystems of the electronics rack. Although advantageous, a defect in one or more of the cold plates, such as a blocked coolant channel in a cold plate, can degrade cooling capacity of such a combined cooling approach.